bashea

First off, I love finding out I got f**ked by a repair shop. Several years ago my '97 DX D16Y7 died - no start, no spark. But, I wasn't saavy on ignition problems, so I had it towed to a shop, they said it was the distributor, replaced it, and charged me $388.37 ($283.37 for the distributor and $105 labor).

Recently, the distributor started leaking oil, so I ordered a seal kit, and studied up on how to remove and disassemble the distributor myself. However, when I went to install the new oil seal, it was too big! Turns out the distributor they put in was an aftermarket Power Select/WTS DST-17420 ($130 at Rock Auto!!), which uses a smaller diameter oil seal than the OEM distributor.

So, I need your help identifying the seal (emailing the company hasn't helped), as there seems to be no brand name on it, only: B011 8 TC 13 20 5 TTO. I attached pics to help.

I would really appreciate any help with this. My Civic is dead until I can get that oil seal.

And Rodeo Auto Tech in Rodeo, California is the rip-off repair shop.

ezone

Goggle search 'TTO oil seal' and you should have some reading material



Or just buy another distributor.
Aftermarket distributors are crap. That's not your installers fault at all.

bashea

ezone -

Thanks for the reply. True, the distributor quality is not his responsibility, but selecting that brand, and charging me what he did for it IS. He hosed me for over a 100% mark-up. I could have bought a Honda dist for that and installed it myself, had I been more knowledgable about ignition systems at that time.
I AM NOW! And his shop will never see me again.

ezone

There's not a lot of choice if one doesn't want to pay for a part from Honda.
ALL aftermarkets are a crapshoot no matter what store sold it nor what brand it is sold under (crap usually made in China). It might last a long time.....It might last only 1/10 as long an the OE part did.....or it may be junk right out of the box.


Try installing 5 junk remans in a row before getting one that actually works right and lets the car roll out of the shop under its own power without setting more codes.
Of course they mark up the part, every store will mark up products no matter what you buy.

They have to if they want to stay in business. Business 101.


Buying parts off the internet isn't how most reputable shops operate.
Check prices from your local DangerZone or NAPA (IDK what parts stores you have there).

bashea

i get markups, ezone, but over 100%, for an aftermarket part, is too much. That's dealership level.

And it could have just been a bad rotor for all I know.

I WISH we had a NAPA here in Pinole, California. I don't even know where they got the distributor from. We only have AutoZone, O'Reilly, and Pep Boys, and none of them carry the PowerSelect brand distributor.

But, while I have you here...

My sister got the CEL on her 2001 Rav4. She took it to the Toyota dealer. They said it was a sensor, and $600 later the CEL was off.

Soon after, the CEL came back on, but she didn't want to go back to the dealer. So, I checked it with my BlueDriver diagnostic scanner, and it said P1155, which is a problem with the heater circuit of A/F sensor 1, bank 2. I cleared the code, but it keeps coming back on. I tested sensor 1 bank 2 with a multimeter (the two black wires), and got 2.7 ohms, which is within specs, so the heater circuit seems to be ok.

Now it gets interesting. Her Toyota invoice for the previous sensor replacement said sensor 1 bank 1 was replaced, but the part number on the invoice, and box they returned to her, was 89467-42010, which is the part number for sensor 1 bank 2.

Any idea what the problem is? I'm totally bewildered. Heater circuit fuse? EFI main relay? I don't even know where to start looking for these.

mac25

Measure the interior diameter and google it to find a replacement part number; then take your old seal with you to a parts store and use the part number you googled to find a replacement.

ezone

Not really. It's still Business 101. Many shops are higher than dealers, and many people can only believe the dealer is highest for whatever reason. Some shops take advantage of that mentality.

There is no rule that says any biz has to adhere to MSRP or list price. Any business can to mark up stuff as they see fit to cover CODB which includes not only todays business, but things like covering the warranty on your part, labor on replacing that part if it fails within their warranty period, and more.
(Many parts distributors will not pay for labor claims on a part failure, so this should be factored into the markup)

And most importantly, PROFIT. If they don't make sufficient profit, they go out of business. They can boost the parts markups, or they can boost the labor fees...no matter what way they choose to do it, a business has to make enough money to cover their CODB.


Also....you took your car in, they gave you an estimate for repair, and you agreed to and approved that work to be done. Done deal. To late to backpedal now.


I have a feeling there are far more than you see.....the places that cater primarily to the better shops (and sell better quality parts, not white box/made in China), the places that are NOT OPEN ON SUNDAY.





I can't tell what happened so here's a few thoughts.....


"Soon after" .....exactly how long is that time frame? An hour? A week? A month?

A failed heater or circuit would cause a code to reset in.......about 2 drives after codes were erased. Did it last longer than that?

(by contrast, most Hondas I deal with would recode by 60 seconds after startup)




Code P1155 is for bank 2 sensor 1

What code did it have before it was fixed the last time? (If it isn't documented anywhere, you may not have much of a leg to stand on)



The 2.0 has all 4 sensors quite close together, if one doesn't read the code definition accurately and doesn't check each sensor location carefully it could be easy to pick and replace the wrong sensor.

Also.....all 4 sensors (well, maybe 3 now) are the same age and have been used the same number of miles.....it's reasonable that all (or matching pairs) could be failing around the same time.

Which sensor on the truck LOOKS brand new?
How many are exactly the same and can be interchanged?
Or even plugged into the wrong harness connectors?




I'd probably want to monitor power and ground on the heater circuit in question to see if it is actually being operated after startup before trying to guess at fuses/relays/etc. If it is supplied with power and ground.....it's probably a sensor. If either power OR ground is missing, then you can chase around the car to find out why. You may want to study some serious theory of operation before you do any checking, find out exactly what the PCM needs to see in order to turn on the heater and what conditions might make it turn the heater off.

Hint: PCM monitors amperage required to run the heater....If it's higher or lower than its desired spec range, it's a failure. It's also a 2 trip code so it has to fail twice in a row before it turns on the warning light....but it should set a pending code after the first failure.